Saturday, July 9, 2016

Costa Rica – No More Fossils Fuels?

The charming and charismatic Monica Araya advocates for building a fossil-fuel-free society. She argues that this lofty goal is achievable in Costa Rica. Why is she so optimistic about Costa Rica's chances?

Excellent record on clean energy

Nearly 100% of Costa Rica’s electrical
energy comes from renewables, a combination of hydro, wind, solar, biomass and
geothermal. Last year, the country’s electrical industry used only renewables
for 299 of 365 days. That’s the good news. The bad news is that 70% of Costa Rica's energy is still based on oil, due to consumption in the transportation
sector. Removing that dependence cannot be done by incremental steps, says
Araya; it requires deep, transformative change. Impossible? Not according to
Araya, because of her second argument for optimism.

Small country with big ideas

Costa Rica is a small country with big ideas and has a track record of bold
unconventional decisions. In 1948, coming out of a brutal civil war, in a
region still suffering much discord, Costa Rica took a decision to abolish the
army, and enshrined that decision in the 1949 constitution. Instead, the money
that would have gone to the military is spent on free education and free health
care. In the 50s, they invested heavily in hydro, in the 70s in national parks
and by the 90s created a system of payments for ecosystem preservation. The result is a nation that does medium
well on GDP/capital at $11,000, but is a positive outlier on the Social Progress
Index.

Current transportation system a mess

Her last argument is that the time is right. Costa Rica’s road system is overloaded and
commuting is a disaster. Thus, it's an opportune time to shift investment from roads to public transportation, which would address both the transportation and the energy issues.

So, the goal is extremely ambitious, but the country is a fertile ground for such a transformation. Araya's strategy is to get people in the country to own this goal. The TED Summit program describes her as the founder and director of Costa Rica Limpia, a citizen group that promotes clean energy and transportation and resilience for climate change, and of Nivela, an international thought leadership group that advances narratives on development and climate responsibility. Holding a Ph.D. in environmental management from Yale, and named as 'Personality of the Future' by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she is indeed an impressive person.. I for one will be interested to see whether she and other Costa Ricans are able to muster the required support.

About Me

Lib is a professional corporate director after a career as an executive in technology, media and communications, where she ran Canada's largest Internet media company.
Lib sits on the boards of Payments Canada and Cogeco Communications and has been a director of ING Direct Bank, Computershare Trust and West Park Healthcare Centre. She has been a consultant on innovation and taught about innovation in both the Rotman and the Queen's full time MBA programs.
She has been a regular attendee at TED and was curator of a TEDx conference and is also a devotee of the Hot Docs film festival, reading, cryptic crosswords, skiing, cottaging, and, most of all, her 4 children and 5 grandchildren.